#The abduction of Margaret Houlihan

[remyfire]

What's incredible about Hawkeye who is a girlfriend who laughs too loudly at her boyfriend's jokes is when Hawk says something funny and BJ makes no audible reaction, he needs to check and make sure he got a good grade in silly. Something completely different could be happening in front of him, but the most vital crucial important thing in this exact moment is making sure Beej is smiling.

[ezrasimp]

| MASH | 5x07 | The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan |

[klingerfashionarchive]

season 5 episode 7

[mashpoll]

The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan (s5 e7): While Margaret is detained out of the camp helping a Korean woman give birth, Potter calls in Colonel Flagg to investigate her disappearance.

Movie Tonight (s5 e22): When a favorite film arrives at the 4077th, the camp makes an event out of it, boosting everyone’s morale.

[marley-manson]

So like, tbf several characters have moments where they practice/speak Korean, it’s just very inconsistent. BJ had a moment in The Nurses where he speaks Korean to a pregnant woman, Hawkeye’s learning it in The Chosen People and There’s Nothing Like a Nurse, Margaret has a couple scenes where she knows enough medical phrases to communicate, and Radar sometimes knows some Korean.

Just making a note to myself bc I’ve definitely complained about no one learning any Korean while they’re there. So it’s not quite true, it’s just very hit or miss and varies a lot depending on the episode. Still not great lol, and I feel like this drops off in later seasons (I could easily be wrong about that, but all the examples I can think of are from s3-5), but yk, at least an attempt was made.

[stars-bean]

M*A*S*H | 5.06 - "The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan"

[summerreign4077]

M*A*S*H Episodes With a Main Character’s Name in the Title.

Hawkeye Pierce

Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde

Carry On, Hawkeye

The Late Captain Pierce

Hawkeye

Hawkeye Get Your Gun

Hawk’s Nightmare

Commander Pierce

Bless You, Hawkeye

Give ‘Em Hell, Hawkeye

Margaret Houlihan

Hot Lips and Empty Arms

Margaret’s Engagement

The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan

Margaret’s Marriage

Hot Lips is Back in Town

Are You Now, Margaret?

Henry Blake

Henry, Please Come Home

The Trial of Henry Blake

Henry in Love

Abyssinia, Henry

Radar O’Reilly

Radar’s Report

Lt. Radar O’Reilly

Goodbye, Radar: Part 1

Goodbye, Radar: Part 2

Charles Winchester

The Winchester Tapes

Dr. Winchester and Mr. Hyde

Father Mulcahy

Mulcahy’s War

Sherman Potter

Potter’s Retirement

BJ Hunnicutt

BJ Papa San

Trapper, Frank, and Klinger are the only main characters who never had their names in an episode title.

[ashkgray]

Colonel Flagg, boy do I have a lot to say about you. A man who's so committed to the military and hanging onto that G.I. image for dear life to the point of literal self-harm. A man whose idea of masculinity is claiming you've trained yourself not to smile. A man who, for all intents and purposes, has been consumed by a system that doesn't give a fuck about him.

The reason that I liken him to Frank Burns a lot is that he's just as much of a propaganda-driven man as the former. The main difference in them lies in the fact that while Frank fails at conventional masculinity and lacks the charisma to actually have a G.I. temperament, Flagg is masculine and charismatic. He's a hunk. Which, I would go so far as to argue makes him an even worse case of a man desperate for purpose. When the war's over, Frank's going to be back to his (mal)practice and to the misery of whatever awaits him in civilian life. It's the shittiest sorry-excuse-for-a-life but it's still a Non-Military Thing He Has. Fake and miserable as it is.

But Flagg? Flagg's CIA. He's part of the damn system. He's deep into it. He, in achieving what Frank couldn't, dug a deeper hole of self-repression and denial for himself. He's barely a person anymore. He talks like a cartoon character hopped up on steroids and squints his eyes like an action movie star trying too hard.

In The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan he shows up and does fucking nothing. Yet somehow maintains this illusion of self-importance. He's silly as damn fucking hell, calling himself the wind and jumping out the damn window only to break his leg. But he genuinely doesn't realize it. And, again, unlike Frank, his self-assurance stops him from even registering it when other people point it out. Hawkeye makes fun of him and he's prissy about it but he doesn't look or feel bullied. Without, at the very least, registering the repulsion others seem to have for you ( which though sometimes evades Frank, is actually intrinsic to his character. He knows they don't like him. ), then how are you meant to improve? How are you meant to escape that trap you've shoved yourself into?

And can we take a moment to talk about his self-harm? Even if subconscious, there must be some part of him that is desperate to escape the life he's paved for himself. A reflection of the horrors he, too, sees both during the war and as a result of CIA conduct. Hurting himself for the sake of the army, the CIA and America™ might be the only way to feel worthwhile and alive at the same time. Just getting hurt, in his eyes, is losing. Doing a "mission" without sustaining any injuries? Why, that's just not noteworthy enough for him to get any attention from big strong Uncle Sam. But getting hurt on a mission? Now that's impressive. Now that's his purpose. Now that's what he should live for and, if all else fails, die for. What wonderful mixture of narcissism AND self-hatred must you have in you, Samuel, to feel that way.

I know this post is all over the place but the point of it is to say that in spite of being a complete and total beefcake, Colonel Samuel Flagg might be M*A*S*H's most pathetic character. Or at least the one who's deepest in his own shit. Unlike Frank, whose development demands an internal trigger to work, Flagg's might just be in dire need of an external one first, because internally he's been programmed to crumble.

[aahsokaatano]

A Brief Examination of Margaret Houlihan and Gender

(aka I'm doing my rough draft of my essay on tumblr bc I can ramble here)

I spent 6 weeks watching all 251 episodes of M*A*S*H with the aim of critically analyzing Margaret Houlihan, and more specifically how she is referred to throughout the series. I was initially doing this with the idea of tracking the change from "Hot Lips" to Margaret, but I got more than I bargained for - I really forgot how often she's referred to as a man or in a gender neutral way, and it's super interesting, so under the cut is a list of quotes and some light analysis.

Season 1

"Oh, sorry baby." / "Major to you!" ("The Pilot" s1e1) Neutral

"You're dismissed!" / "Thanks, Mother." ("The Pilot" s1e1) Feminine

"One lady in our outfit..." ("Dear Dad" s1e12) Feminine

Season 2

"You are no gentleman!" / "Good thing you are." ("Divided We Stand" s2e1) Masculine

[Margaret speaking on behalf of Frank] "That's pretty strong stuff, Frank." / "It's true!" ("L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel)" s2e7) Masculine

"You've emasculated me for the last time!" ("Carry On Hawkeye" s2 e11) Masculine

"Margaret Houlihan; nurse, friend, and all around good egg." ("Carry On Hawkeye" s2e11) Neutral

[Radar calls Margaret "sir" - this is something that he ends up doing for several more seasons] "Men are sirs, women are ma'ams!" ("Hot Lips and Empty Arms" s2e14) Feminine (with Masculine connotations long-term)

Season 3

"You know, for once I agree with him?" / "I [Margaret] said that." / "I know." ("Rainbow Bridge" s3e2) Masculine

"Speaking man-to-man, Colonel," ("There is Nothing Like a Nurse" s3e10) Masculine

"He's a creep." / "She's a creepette." ("The Consultant" s3e17) Feminine

"I know you didn't volunteer because you're a married man [...] Well, I'm a married man, too, Frank. Married to the Army." ("Aid Station" s3e19) Masculine

"I'm not just Major Margaret Houlihan, army nurse. I'm also Margaret Houlihan - frail, vulnerable, sensitive female." ("Aid Station" s3e19) Feminine

"Don't think of me as a woman!" ("Aid Station" s3e19) Neutral/Masculine

Season 4

"When I was five, I had a crying fit because they wouldn't let me have a crew cut." ("Deluge" 4.23) Neutral/Masculine

Season 5

"He [Donald] calls me his little plebe." ("Margaret's Engagement" s5e2) Neutral

"I'm an engaged person!" ("Margaret's Engagement" s5e2) Neutral

[Speaking to a newborn baby] "Major Houlihan is here to help you." ("The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan" s5e6) Neutral

"Anybody can open with a pair of 10s if they're wearing civilian boxer shorts." / [...] / "I'll open for 25 cents." ("Dear Sigmund" s5e7) Neutral/Masculine

"Margaret, when you're sick, can't you call me Frank?" / "You know I'm an engaged person." ("The Colonel's Horse" s5e11) Neutral

"Margaret, I'm as taut as a watch spring." / "Your state of tautness s no longer a concern of mine, Major Burns. I happen to be an engaged person." ("Hawkeye's Nightmare" s5e13) Neutral

"Sure, nurse..." / "Nurse?! You're talking to a major!" / "Sorry. Would you help us move this guy into pre-op, Major?" ("Post-Op" s5e23) Feminine/Neutral

Season 6

"A head nurse who is part seductress, and part Attila the Hun" ("The Winchester Tapes" s6e4) Feminine/Masculine

[the nurses to Hawkeye] "Do you think you could talk to Hot Lips?" ("Images" s6e9) Feminine

"Hot Lips Houlihan: blonde landmine." ("Patent 4077" s6e16) Feminine

"Congratulations. You're still a major, Major." ("What's Up, Doc?" s6e19) Neutral

Season 7

[about her divorce] "Best thing that ever happened to me. The weight of the world is off my shoulders! I feel like a new woman!" ("Peace On Us" s7e2) Feminine

[BJ] "The king is dead." / [Hawk] "Long live the queen." / [Margaret] "You bet." ("Hot Lips is Back in Town" s7e20) Feminine

"I'm going as far in this man's army as any woman can go. Maybe even general!" ("Hot Lips is Back in Town" s7e20) Feminine

Season 8

"I'm a woman, and I can tell you what it's like for a woman to be away from the man she loves." ("Too Many Cooks" s8e1) Feminine

"To be a woman, with the rank of major..." ("Are You Now, Margaret?" s8e2) Feminine

"Hot Lips?" / "Yeah, that's a nickname she picked up." ("Are You Now, Margaret?" s8e2) Feminine

"Hot Streak Houlihan strikes again!" ("Life Time" s8e11) Neutral

"I'm just as much a major as any other major. You'll notice these leaves come in gold, not pink for girls and blue for boys." ("Stars and Stripes" s8e14) Feminine/Neutral

"What do you suppose I am deep down?" / "Deep, deep down? A woman." / "Go a little deeper." / "A major." / "I'm me. Sometimes a nurse, sometimes a major, sometimes a woman in love... sometimes all three at once." ("Stars and Stripes" s8e14) Feminine/Neutral

[speaking to an infant] "Hello there, sweetheart. I'm your Auntie Margaret." ("Yessir, That's Our Baby" s8e15) Feminine

Season 9

"What's the matter? She isn't man enough to bring it in [to the men's showers] herself?" ("Bless You, Hawkeye" s9e17) Masculine

[speaking to Margaret] "You know, you don't get to be a high-ranking officer, to run an O.R., to command respect, unless you've earned it." ("The Foresight Saga" s9e19) Neutral

Season 10

"I know everybody thinks I'm tough, demanding, insensitive, cold, callous, crabby - feel free to disagree at any time!" / "Think of it this way; maybe you are all that stuff, but deep down underneath, I think maybe there's some more stuff that's... pretty good stuff. You know?" ("The Birthday Girls" s10e11) Neutral

Season 11

"I do not need the help of a nurse." / "It's a good thing I'm a lady or you'd need a nurse, buster!" ("Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" s11e16) Feminine

Total Counts:

Feminine: 19

Masculine: 12

Neutral: 17

These aren't all of the quotes I collected during my rewatch, or the only thing I was paying attention to, but it definitely caught my interest. And laying out like like this, by season, you can really see the trends ebb and flow. Margaret is portrayed pretty firmly as feminine/neutral through the first season, but season two introduces the running joke of other characters referring to her as "Frank" and using he/him due to how often she speaks on his behalf, as well as Radar calling her "sir" rather than "ma'am." She sticks even more firmly to referring to herself neutrally in season five, calling herself an "engaged person" rather than an "engaged woman" on three different occasions.

After her marriage and Frank's departure, Margaret is referred to more femininely again, but she doesn't refer to herself as a woman until season 7, after her divorce. I find it especially interesting to compare "The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan" in s5 and "Yessir, That's Our Baby" in s8; both deal with very young infants and show us Margaret's interactions with these babies. In s5, she refers to herself as "Major Houlihan" to the baby, but then in s8, she's "Auntie Margaret." Between these events were her marriage and divorce, and Margaret's self-confidence being boosted by her work on herself and her duties as head nurse.

BJ refers to Margaret loosely in masculine terms in s9, and it's the first time the joke has been really touched on since s6, when Charles compares her to Attila the Hun. This is the last time anyone refers to Margaret as masculine, with the final two seasons having her presented either neutrally (by rank) or femininely (as a "lady").

Margaret's character journey actually can be tracked through this list of quotes pretty well. She's more of an antagonist when she's referred to more often with masculine terms, and as she develops into a more traditional protagonist, the narrative refers to her with more feminine terms. The fact that Margaret herself is most likely to use feminine terms when she's at her most confident in herself is definitely interesting, and I think says a lot about how her confidence is tied into her self-image.

[pearloftheforest]

ep 6 season 5 - The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan

this has to be one of my favorite jokes in the show

[mylittleredgirl]

previously on mylittleredgirl: [four seasons of m*a*s*h] [six weeks of screaming about margaret houlihan]

i have now finished season five disc one and a bullet point recap is due! [yeah there's more screaming in it]

bug out was a fucking DELIGHT

god i was so worried though when klinger had to trade all his dresses i was wailing internally. what if he just wears fatigues forever!?!??? but it's all okay!!!! that tassel mod dress he has on in "the abduction of margaret houlihan" healed me ten times over. his outfits have been ��� this season.

such a mix of really dumb slapstick comedy and "oh god the war is Right Here" drama and little character sweetness... love it.

and the family reunion happiness at the end!!!! god bless. i left my body for like thirty-six hours.

i really really love the tone they're striking with frank this season. they've walked back the cartoon villainy of late season four, so he's once again a relatively harmless clown. i breathed a huge sigh of relief. he's soooo much more fun this way.

margaret's engagement: bonkers. delightful. she's unbearable. there is so much wrong with her. i want to study her in a jar. i will never shut up again.

with this put together with some bits later in the disc (including that cut scene crayon joke lmao), did she somehow manage to trade DOWN from frank? is that even possible??? it's either that or this new dude is actually just The Exact Same Guy, but now she'll be the fool wife at home instead of the beloved mistress.

i mean personally if i were louise burns i'd be very happy for my dumbass husband to fuck around on the other side of the world for as long as possible while i enjoy the $35,000 house and two cars without him, but for someone like margaret who is far more interested in being wined and dined than running a household, this... may not be the field promotion she thinks it is.

hawkeye rising to frank's defense and him and b.j. enabling frank's little takedown of margaret at the end felt very real. sure, in the grand scheme of things, margaret is Annoying and frank tried to have hawkeye executed last season, but bros before hos.

okay how FUNNY would it be though if the "little redheaded nurse" frank planned to seduce was baker-from-the-nurses, because she would have scratched frank's eyes out for trying and not felt bad about it

and actually, that's a plausible backstory for the extra bad blood between her and margaret, too??? oh yeah. that definitely happened.

i actively missed frank/margaret as the disc went along though. maybe the show had stretched the tension of that relationship as tight as it could go, and it's nice that they get to do new things... but they're so funny and awful together and i miss them sharing scenes!!!

i really assumed - like frank did lol - that they would continue to rabbit around together, only now she would also get to string him along with the jealousy game, but...... well, i'm glad it's still hanging out in the background of the narrative, anyway. i live in hope that they will slip and fuck and it will be soooo messy.

FUCK is it possible i shipped that for real???? god. i don't know if my family name can bear this dishonor.

out of sight, out of mind...

...has taught us the very important lesson that hawkeye is 9000x more annoying without something to do (annoying to everyone else i mean!! not to me. i will happily watch him annoy everyone.)

him asking b.j. to visit him a million times a day 🥺

i'm almost satisfied now by the "doctor-experiences-the-role-of-patient" theme that i didn't get in "hawkeye." i suppose hurt/comfort fic can take it from here.

however i'm totally satisfied by how sweet it was to see everyone taking care of him!! and how much they love him!!

lt. radar o'reilly... devastating. i mean funny and delightful but it's mean!! so glad that boy is back in stripes. however they could have at least promoted him a little for his trouble. sergeant o'reilly???

i have already said more about the nurses (post here) than ever needed to be said. and yet. i'm quite sure i could say more if pressed

the abduction of margaret houlihan

........ will i never be free of colonel flagg episodes 😞

i love the continuing evidence that she has invested time in learning korean, and i really really really love the slow expansion of our perspective to include like oh yeah. there's a village where people live full time and it's literally right here.

imagine if after the war she becomes an ob nurse...

on the one hand, how do they not make frank do gun handling training. on the other hand they probably don't because it always ends with stitches and an accident report.

i sometimes wonder if mash was like jury duty for asian actors in the 70s. you probably won't get to say anything but they call you up and you just have to go.

dear sigmund!!!!!! this is another episode where people were staring at me through the window so i'll comment a little more:

the fandom's favorite guy sidney freedman deserves that crown. what a weirdo. talk about a busman's holiday for a psychiatrist to come to the 4077 for a vacation and psychoanalyze everyone. but for fun!

i really don't have a proper sense of the geography at play here because he really does like. just come by to play cards once a week. and drives through a war zone i guess to do it? he has probably sacked out in the swamp before when the air raid situation changes but this time he just... doesn't leave.

and aaaa!! margaret took her very special episode about How To Make Friends to heart!!!! she joined the poker game!!!

she had plenty of time to work on that lesson though because the jeremy bearimy time shenanigans are in full swing here at the 4077. we went from midsummer in 'the nurses' to a bitter cold march two episodes later.

i always kind of assumed the mash weather was loosely inspired by real human weather, but no, in fact the actors just have to randomly suffer in parkas or getting sprayed in the face to look sweaty in alternating weeks regardless of the surrounding conditions.

SUFFERING for their ART

also jfc b.j.!!!! dunking frank in cold water in freezing temperatures is a serious health and safety concern my dude!!!!

i'm afraid b.j. is still not beating the little brother allegations, he has just aged up from innocent baby to fucking gremlin

(i should confess that my little brother diagnosis is guided by the fact that in my complex family and housing history i only ever lived with "brothers" younger than me, and never older ones. but the innocent baby and prank gremlin stages are real.)

i made a note here of "margaret randomly drinking gin in the swamp now!!?!??" like the poker game was one thing, people could strong-arm her into that while she feigns protest, but ma'am WHO are you and what have you done with— and then the next note is "oh good she's still insane"

potter named his horse sophie <3 also he's collecting granddaughters, i think the count is up to 3 now. or baby sherry is experiencing a temporal anomaly of her own!

the letter radar wrote to the dead guy's parents and potter reading it... fucking ended me. please let harry morgan do serious bits more often, it's outstanding and far too rare.

it's not surprising that frank's wife changing (wearing pants! doing activities!) would stress him out, and not just because he's a dick. any of them would struggle with their families growing without them, because that means they can Never Go Home to the life they left!! (e.g. trapper losing it because his girls were getting older.) but it is kind of fascinating that he loves both his wife and margaret, and even said mid-fever that he wanted them to be friends, but he also wants them to be NOTHING alike.

all in all it's understandable that sidney would check in to the no boundaries motel to have his poker buddies shake it out of him, but he could also have taken his leave somewhere with indoor heat. so he's as crazy as the rest of them. <3

also they're not his patients he's just observing them like zoo animals so forget confidentiality he's absolutely gonna write a book about them someday.

mulcahy's war: i don't know why i have been misspelling his name with an 'e' the whole time because it was literally in the end credits of almost every episode for four seasons.

oh god he's so precious i don't talk about it enough. playing poker for orphans. feeling like he doesn't do enough while potter thinks he has the hardest job. that unrelenting positive regard for everyone. always with that little grin.

that little grin in FULL PLAY as he sneaks out of the house to go off to war when dad's not looking

radar should never be sent on a mission where people are bleeding when will they LEARN

corporal cupcake deserves every medal he gets!!!!

frank's foot fetish becoming his one true medical specialty is just. i don't know what to do with this. good for him??? do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life???

speaking of unrelenting positive regard, margaret's policy of nurses never talking back to the doctors in the operating room sure has taken a hit. i realize this is about frank being an intolerable ex, but i choose to believe that the detente between margaret and her nurses has turned the O.R. into a pvp zone. the next time hawkeye tries to seduce a nurse over an open body, he's gonna get wrecked and margaret's just going to shrug pretty and look the other way.

in conclusion: season five is soooo gooooooood!!!!! can't wait for disc two!

[msculper]

in the abduction of margaret houlihan when bj is straight up clutching hawkeye’s robe on the way to the o.r. reblog if you agree

[klingerfashionarchive]

season 5 episode 7

[drpierceandmrhyde]

When it comes to the Flagg episodes, there are multiple ones I don’t care for, and with the episodes I do like, I generally don’t like them for him.

“Deal Me Out” is an early-seasons favorite. I like it for the poker game framing device, the shared screen time among most of the main cast, and Sam Pak. Flagg’s presence is fine, but it isn’t a real highlight for me.

“Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?” rewired my brain, but that is almost entirely because of Chandler and the conversation between him and Sidney. It makes sense for Flagg to be there, and I live for the moment when Sidney calls him a unbelievable example of walking fertilizer, but again, I don’t love the episode specifically because of Flagg.

I think Flagg is a highlight in “The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan” and “Rally ‘Round the Flagg, Boys.” He is very, very funny in Abduction, and I like his shenanigans in Rally. But I also like Abduction because of Margaret’s plot. We get payoff to her learning Korean, and it’s nice to see her help the locals, so I don’t like that episode solely because of Flagg.

I know he’s a fan favorite, but I don’t really care for him. There are secondary characters I like much, much more.

[mashpoll]

Mulcahy's War (s5 e9): Father Mulcahy gets a taste of the war up close when he makes a trip to an aid station.

The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan (s5 e7): While Margaret is detained out of the camp helping a Korean woman give birth, Potter calls in Colonel Flagg to investigate her disappearance.